Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: R&B Bands, #1 Maze featuring Frankie Beverly

As I've gotten older, four things must happen to complete any given summer: 1) I must take a trip to Hains Point and watch the sunset; 2) I must have a burnt hotdog at somebody's cookout; 3) I must hear "Summertime" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince towards the beginning of the summer; and 4) I must take a daytime cruise in my car with the windows down and listen to Maze & Frankie Beverly.  That's how intrinsic this legendary group's music is to my life and they have sooooooo many good songs.  "Happy Feelin's" gives you exactly that.  "Southern Girl" was part of the reason that I swore up and down that I'd end up with a thick chick from below the Mason-Dixon line with the most irresistible accent ever.  "Joy and Pain" is just real and dope.  "Can't Get Over You" just takes me back to a good time in childhood.  "Silky Soul" made me miss Marvin Gaye just like The Commodores' "Night Shift" did.  Even lesser-discussed hits like "Love's on the Run" are memorable because they were just catchy and unmistakably Maze.  Of course, "Before I Let Go"...well, you're just not Black if this song doesn't make you get up and dance.  Like seriously...Henry Louis Gates needs to bring you on Finding Your Roots to question everything you ever knew about yourself.

Scribbler's 11th Hour Post of the Week: Why Chris Rock Was the Right Host for the Oscars

I don't know how this debate ever got started among Black people, but it's one of the many moments where we just have to compare two people who are often nothing like each other stylistically speaking.  For years, the question was who's the funnier comedian between Chris Tucker and Chris Rock?  Maybe it's because they're both Black and named Chris, but whatever.  Most people I know said Chris Tucker was funnier, and I understood it because between Friday, Money Talks and Rush Hour, he frankly made better and funnier movies.  On cue, a lot of those same people said that Chris Rock wasn't funny at all...because no two Black folk being compared to each other can both be good.  (See the Jay-Z vs. Nas, Beyonce vs. Rihanna or old school hip-hop vs. new school hip-hop debates as the evidence behind my shade.)  However, although Tucker was funny as a stand-up comedian, I've always preferred Chris Rock in that capacity because I felt like he injected more social commentary without sacrificing the funny.  I thought the whole "you put the money in a book" bit from Bring the Pain (1996) was one of the funniest things that I've ever heard because, like most poignant comedy, there's a lot of truth behind that joke that says so much more about the issues in our community than the punch line can convey.  So amidst the most scared section of White America not having the best five-year period regarding race relations let alone the best Black History Month, it was only fitting that Chris Rock hosted the 88th Academy Awards.

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: R&B Bands, #3 The Isley Brothers

My love for The Isley Brothers ironically began in 1985 two years after the 3 + 3 lineup formed in 1973 were split into two groups: The Isley Brothers in which only O'Kelly, Ron and Rudolph Isley remained; and Isley-Jasper-Isley, consisting of Ernie Isley, Chris Jasper and Marvin Isley.  The latter trio's most popular album, Caravan of Love (1985), stood out in my memory for three reasons: 1) out of all the records in my dad's extensive collection at the time, the Sahara-inspired cover was the most indelible; 2) their biggest hit, "Caravan of Love," was in constant rotation on the radio and their follow-up single, "Insatiable Woman," captured my attention even more; and 3) as the opening act for Luther Vandross in a 1986 concert at the Capital Centre, they were the first act that I recall seeing live.  (Mind you, Luther never showed, but we won't go there.)  The most memorable part of that concert was the tribute to O'Kelly, who had passed away from a heart attack not long before the show.  From there, I just kept discovering more and more songs to love from all six of the Teaneck, New Jersey  implants by way of Cincinnati because their sound was truly their sound.  It's rock...it's funk...it's soul...it's just a little bit of everything that I love from my favorite bands.  Now here's an honest moment: it took me at least a decade to warm up more to their uptempo stuff because I felt like their strength as a band were their ballads--and I still strongly feel that way.  So let's dig into the five songs that resonate with me the most from my third favorite R&B band of all time...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: R&B Bands, #4 Ohio Players

When I think of a band that epitomizes funk, you'd be hard pressed to sell me on many other bands than the Ohio Players.  Probably like most people from the tail end of the Generation X spectrum, my first introduction to the Dayton, Ohio band was "Fire" and, even as a young boy, I realized quickly that the song lived up to its namesake.  However, like everyone else in my "Rave & Favorite Five", I began digging deeper into their catalog, hearing more of their songs and falling more in love with their sound with each new discovery.  Not to mention that as a teenager with a growing penchant for crate digging as well as an eye for anything and everything aesthetically pleasing (or what can also be seen as "raging hormones"), I was convinced that no one was touching their album covers...well, at least "touching" in the sense of being as dope.  Ultimately, although they jammed on their most popular uptempo songs like "Skin Tight" and "Rollercoaster", I gravitated more towards their ballads as you will see in the revelation of my top five favorite songs by the Ohio Players.  Let's roll...

In Heavy Rotation: Black History Month 2016

Since a lot of my Black History Month celebration has been spent tackling some heavy, but necessary subjects, I decided to end this special month on a lighter note: music.  Now as you all might know, it's very easy for me to wax nostalgic about my favorite artists in R&B/soul and hip-hop/rap.  However, what will be commonplace in the "Heavy Rotation" series is that I'll always seek to give my musical palate more of a challenging taste test.  The best way to break down the four albums that I decided to give a spin for Black History Month is to begin each one with an "Honest Moment" to either highlight the ease or the difficulty in giving each album a fair shot.  With that, let's give it a go...